Recreation

Four title fights and one superfight will highlight an over-the-top 60th edition of Rumble at the Roseland on December 3rd.

In the welterweight title bout, Jason Novelli and Bill Denney will face off in a matchup of talented fan favorites. Denney recently made news outside the cage after he disarmed a man who had just robbed a hotel with a semiautomatic handgun and held him until police arrived. Novelli, who is making his second attempt at the welterweight crown, has beaten notable fighters like Nathan Orchards and Alex Jordan.

The big boys will get their chance to take center stage as well, as heavyweight champ Chris DeLaRocha looks to defend his belt against undefeated Dylan Clark. Aside from being the baddest man in his weight class, DeLaRocha is also known for knocking out Rico Martinez in just 30 seconds at Rumble 55.

In two more much-anticipated title fights, 125-pound champ David Converse will take on Jeff Alden, while Ryan Truitt and Will Hill will battle it out for the vacant lightweight championship belt. And just to add a little more excitement to the evening, Nathan Allen of Team Quest and Brysen French of Impact JJ will clash in a middleweight superfight.

Of course, anyone who has been to a Rumble at the Roseland event in the past knows that the best fight of the night could just as easily come from two first-timers who have never set foot in a cage before. That's the beauty of of Rumble at the Roseland. It's all about the pride and passion of first-timers getting past their fear and taking that first step into the cage; or sometimes it's all about the pure talent and commitment of an up-and-comer who is fighting for his chance at the big time. Either way, you'll find more heart and raw emotion at this event than any other around.

The Oregonsports.com crew will be on hand to capture all the action with a full photo gallery and event recap, so check in with us later that night for the skinny on all the ass-kickery. If you’d like to join us, get your tickets here.

The state's best baseball and softball players will be chasing Murrayhill of Beaverton and Pendleton as the Little League all-star tournaments begin across Oregon.

All-star teams of 11- and 12-year-olds from Oregon's leagues are eligible to reach the World Series.

The baseball series is played in Williamsport, Pa., Aug. 18-28, while the softball series is played at Alpenrose Dairy in Southwest Portland, Aug. 11-17.

Tokyo, Japan won the baseball title last summer. Warner Robins, Ga., won the softball title.

Murrayhill won the baseball title for the 10th time last year, going 5-1 in the state tournament, which has been held since 1959. This year's champion advances to the six-state Northwest Region, Aug. 5-13, in San Bernardino, Calif.

Only two leagues from Oregon: Rose City in 1958 and Murrayhill in 2006, have advanced to the World Series.

Pendleton won the softball title last year. The Oregon champion will play in the 10-state West Region tournament, July 23-29, in San Bernardino.

District tournaments differ throughout the nine districts in Oregon with some using a pool-play format, while others use a double-elimination bracket.

In their third season, the Portland Rain women's soccer team is getting ready for West Coast playoff action, which is likely to begin in three weeks. First, though, there's four regular season matches to take care of in the Women's Premier Soccer League's Northwest Division.

The Portland Rain’s weekend sweep of Spokane put it in position to clinch a spot in the Women's Premier Soccer League playoffs this weekend when it meets the club's Under-23 team in a pair of games.

Portland beat Spokane, 2-1 on Friday and 4-2 on Saturday, to remain comfortably ahead of the Bend-based Oregon Rush within the Northwest Division title in the league, which is billed as the largest women’s soccer league in the world.

The Rain are 7-0-1 heading into the weekend games at Strasser Field at Delta Park. The U23 squad is 1-7-0.

The Oregon Rush is 5-3-0.

Nicole Wilcox scored her 15th goal in Saturday’s win and continues to lead the WPSL in scoring. She is also among the top 10 in assists with four.

Wilcox and club owner John Madding talked about the team's success, the league's success and the challenge of playing California teams in the WPSL playoffs. The club has a fund-raising event set for July 17 at Grand Central Bowl as part of its financial preparations for the Western Region playoffs, which involve as many as three games in three days. With three wins, the team would qualify for a national tournament.

The Boston Aztecs won last year’s tournament, the third time in the past five years a team from Boston or New York has won the title.

The league has crowned a national champion since 1998.

Former University of Portland standout Cori Alexander was voted the league’s Most Valuable Goaltender last season while playing for the California Storm.

Oregonsports Journal focused on women's soccer in its Oct. 29, 2009, issue and discovered the Women’s Professional Soccer league had inspired players into the high school ranks to dream of a pro career.

BATTLE GROUND - Kyle English, who pulled himself from the quarterback position after a disastrous start, rallied the Clark County Vipers to a 20-14 win over Southern Oregon to give the Pacific Football League's North Division a 2-1 win over the South in the second annual Border War Saturday at Battle Ground High School.

The Vipers capitalized on Quentin Sullivan's third interception of the game that gave them the ball at the Renegades' 12. Two plays later, English ran 3 yards for the score and the win.

South Sound beat the Rogue Warriors 48-7 following the Poartland Monarchs' 47-2 win over Yakima.

The PFL's inaugural regular season begins Saturday.

English, who guided the Vipers to two previous preseason wins, completed just one of his first nine passes for 6 yards, and threw three interceptions - the second being returned 40 yards by Jason Young for a touchdown and a 7-0 lead for the Renegades. After the third interception, English, the Oregon Football League's Offensive Player of the Year in 2008 as a receiver, stepped aside and let Naamon Archer run the offense.

Southern Oregon finished the first half up 14-0, getting an 80-yard scoring pass from Tory Snyder to Justin Perales late in the first quarter.

English didn't return to quarterback until the third quarter began, and again struggled, completing just one of five passes for 1 yard, but his sixth pass went for 12 yards and a first down and sparked an 80-yard scoring drive. English hit Kai Moe with a 10-yard pass for a touchdown that cut the deficit to 14-7.

Early in the fourth quarter, the Vipers again drove 80 yards with English completing three passes for 72 yards, the big one being 51 yards to Moe. English capped the drive with an 8-yard run.

In overtime, Southern Oregon's second possession ended with Sullivan's third pick that set up the winning score.

Vancouver's defense forced nine turnovers, including two that ended Southern Oregon drives that had reached inside the Vipers' 10.

The Vipers had four turnovers of its own.

South Sound's defense and special teams played a key role in its win over the Warriors. The defense forced five turnovers and special teams ran back a fumble for a touchdown and returned a punt 95 yards for a score.

The Monarchs got two defensive scores on interception returns and five touchdown passes - four by Russell Schneider - in its win.

Just as the National Football League delves into federal mediation, the Pacific Football League is headed toward its season-opening weekend with a spark of NFL debate. Is minor league football more of a players' league that puts players' needs first, or an owners' league where attendance is a priority?

The dominant team from the Oregon Football League is looking to be the dominant team in the newly-formed Pacific Football League, and coach Aaron Fentress is going to make it happen.

Fentress, once labeled "The Most Hated Coach in Oregon," talked about the upcoming season Monday as the Portland Monarchs prepared for their season opener, Saturday against the Umatilla Panthers at the Pendleton Round-up field.

Fentress, a long-time writer for The Oregonian, and veteran linebacker Beau Gates appeared on the fourth episode of Pacific Football Weekly.

The Monarchs begin their 2011 season with a preseason game against the Umatilla Panthers Saturday at Pendleton High School.

The inaugural PFL season is headed for a weekend with three teams seeing action: the Monarchs, Kitsap County Bears and Grays Harbor Bearcats. A preview of those games and some highlights from Clark County win over the Portland Raiders will keep hosts Cliff Pfenning and Charlie Latt busy starting at 8:30 p.m. live on oregonsports.com.

With the score tied and their offense bogged down, the Clark County Vipers got a huge lift from their defense, which scored the go-ahead points that carried the team past the Portland Raiders, 26-12, Saturday in a Pacific Football League preseason game at Battle Ground High School.

Defensive tackle Marques Cross scooped up a fumble at the Portland 3 and ran for a touchdown that put the Vipers up 19-12 late in the third quarter.

Clark County added another score in the fourth quarter and improved to 2-0 on the season before a supportive crowd of nearly 300 fans.

"We go into every game with the goal of scoring," said Cross, who also recovered another fumble in the fourth quarter. "At halftime, we talked about scoring, about scooping and scoring. When there's a fumble, we don't just fall on it, we try to scoop and score. This is two straight weeks it's worked."

The Vipers scored a defensive touchdown and also recorded a safety in a 50-0 win over the Washington Cavaliers a week earlier.

Clark County gets a week off before playing the Southern Oregon Renegades in the first game of the 2011 Border War, April 16, at Battle Ground.

"We got a pretty good test and found out a lot of things we need to work on," Vipers coach Reggie White said. "That's what we wanted from this game. To be tested and still win."

Portland, which went winless last season, got a pair of touchdown runs from Tirrell Thompson and a solid performance from rookie quarterback Zack Taylor in the loss. The Raiders are off until April 23, when they play at High Desert in the opening week of the PFL season.

"This was a good start for us," said Portland linebacker Antonio Sparrow, who had one of three interceptions for the Raiders. "We held them to 12 points for most of the game, and they've got a pretty strong offense. That says a lot about how well we can stop teams."

Clark County quarterback Kyle English threw three touchdowns and also had three interceptions in his second start since moving from receiver. English completed 24 of 44 passes for 258 yards.

Taylor completed five of his first six passes for 81 yards while leading the Raiders to a pair of run-dominated scoring drives. The Vipers responded with a stiffer run defense and he finished 10 of 18 for 91 yards with one interception - on the team's final drive.

The re-invigorated Vancouver Vipers, who've changed their name to Clark County, opened the 2011 Pacific Football League schedule with an impressive 50-0 win over the Washington Cavaliers Saturday at Kiggins Bowl in Vancouver.

Kyle English, a former standout for the Portland Monarchs franchise, threw for four touchdowns and newly-recruited Romeen Abdollmohammidi kicked two field goals as the Vipers cruised to victory in the first game involving one of the 16 teams in the newly-formed PFL.

As the Cavaliers are not a PFL franchise, the game is classified as non-league.

The Vipers took the ball after the opening kickkoff and drove 52 yards in eight plays with English connecting with Charles Hepner for the final nine yards. Abdollmohammidi, who played two seasons at Washington State, booted the extra-point attempt over the Kiggins Bowl outer fence and the Vipers were off to their first win.

English later connected with Jason Pabillano from 27 yards out and twice with Kai Moe, from 6 and 8 yards, for touchdowns. Naamon Archer also threw a scoring pass, connecting with Cody Gilbert from 15 yards.

The Vipers defense returned a fumble for a score and also recorded a safety, giving the team nine scoring plays.

English played with the Monarchs when they were based in Salem as the Oregon Monarchs. As a receiver, he was the Oregon Football League's Offensive Player of the Year in 2008, catching passes from current Monarchs quarterback Russell Schneider.

Clark County, which suited up nearly 50 players, plays a preseason game against the Portland Raiders Saturday at Battle Ground High School starting at 6 p.m.

The 2011 Pacific Football League season gets its first dose of reality Saturday when the Vancouver Vipers play host to the Washington Cavaliers in a non-league game at Kiggins Bowl.

The Vipers, who changed ownership during the offseason, have one of the most active preseason schedules, with a game against the Portland Raiders set for April 2, and then the Border War, which the franchise will play host to for the second-straight year, April 16, at Battle Ground High School.

Satirday's game is set for a 6 p.m. kick-off. Proceeds from the game will benefit The Arc of Clark County.

Vancouver played its way into the Oregon Football League playoffs last season, where it lost to the eventual champion Portland Monarchs in the semifinals.

The Cavaliers franchise is one of the oldest in Northwest semi-pro football dating back to the 1990s. They're scheduled to play the Grays Harbor Bearcats of the PFL, April 9.